Mayor 'very concerned' about Prescott Park

PORTSMOUTH — Mayor Robert Lister said he is “very concerned” about the relationship between the Trustees of Prescott Park and the Prescott Park Arts Festival, which holds concerts and plays in the city-owned park.

PORTSMOUTH — Mayor Robert Lister said he is “very concerned” about the relationship between the Trustees of Prescott Park and the Prescott Park Arts Festival, which holds concerts and plays in the city-owned park.

Lister said he worries the festival's success could lead to noise and traffic problems, and added city officials have to be “sensitive to the park's neighbors,” in the South End.

The mayor said Thursday he plans to reach out to both sides after talking to the City Council on Monday about some of the broader issues surrounding the festival's success, which he referred to as “growing pains.”

“I hope that the success of the festival doesn't create issues like noise and traffic,” Lister said.

He acknowledged that, “I don't think anybody expected we'd have some of the crowds we're having,” adding it raises legitimate issues like whether there should be limit on crowd size.

Tensions between the two boards emerged earlier this year when trustees, who manage the park, sought a $25,000 annual impact fee from PPAF. Festival officials refused, and instead made a counterproposal in May, according to PPAF Executive Director Ben Anderson. When the two sides couldn't reach a deal, they agreed to try again in the fall, Anderson said recently.

Lister said this week that PPAF officials were scheduled to discuss issues with the trustees at their Thursday meeting, but that did not take place. PPAF Board Chairman Claudette Barker said in a statement Thursday, “The festival appreciates the mayor's involvement. We look forward to a meeting with all parties to work on these issues and did not attend today in anticipation of that meeting.”

City Councilor Esther Kennedy, who lives in the South End, said “noise is definitely a concern of many residents.”

“But the bottom line is everyone loves the fact we have the arts festival at Prescott Park,” Kennedy said Thursday.

Still, she said the size of the crowds, which she believes range from several thousand to as high as 10,000, compel the council and community to “have a conversation about Prescott Park.” “There definitely needs to be a discussion about what that venue really is and how many people it should hold,” she said.

She credited PPAF with lowering the volume of the concerts during the past week, but said “it was really loud in the beginning of the year when they were doing the rehearsals.”

She said part of the discussion should concern what services should be provided by the festival in terms of security or emergency services when there are bigger crowds.

Trustee Dana Levenson said they are waiting to hear from the mayor before meeting again with festival organizers, which he said trustees routinely do. He agreed the issues raised by Lister and other city councilors about the festival — including noise, parking, traffic and crowd size — all should be addressed.

“I think some of the feedback you've been hearing ... it's an all-encompassing broad point of view that we as trustees have to take into account relative to our mission,” Levenson said.

But he mentioned several times that “each and every trustee thinks having the arts festival in the park is important to the city of Portsmouth.” The trustees' mission, he added, is to make sure PPAF benefits the park and city as a whole.

“We're not concerned solely and exclusively with the arts festival in the park, we're concerned with the park in its entirety as a community resource,” Levenson said, adding the park hosts a number of activities, not just the arts festival. “We want to make sure we're a park first. We don't want the park to be just a venue for the arts festival.”

Levenson said when trustees receive complaints about noise or traffic caused by PPAF, they have to respond. “There's a whole host of issues that's incumbent for us as trustees to take a look at,” he said.

He agreed crowd sizes must to be looked at. “Other than going down there and eyeballing it, I have no clue,” he said of crowd size.

City Councilor Bradley Lown, a former park trustee, agreed “the success of the arts festival has changed the nature of the relationship between the arts festival, the trustees, the abutters and the taxpayers.”

He attended a Wednesday night concert and said there were 2,000 to 3,000 people there and he expects a big crowd for Saturday's Mary Chapin Carpenter concert.

“There are a whole host of issues that I hope can be resolved between he trustees and the arts festival without the input of the City Council,” Lown said.

Police Capt. Frank Warchol said he does not remember police making any arrests at PPAF events the last few years. “That just goes to show you it doesn't happen very often,” he said Thursday.

Likewise, he said, there's been “very few, if any” complaints about noise or parking.